exploratorium

Don't believe everything you hear -- a new science app reminds iPad users that our brains like to play tricks on us.

Created by the Exploratorium museum, Sound Uncovered replicates sound phenomena experiments, using examples that test what you thought you knew -- like why we can hear our car engines -- and introduces some sounds you may have never heard before.

"It's revealing the kink in the system, how your brain works," said Jean Cheng, project director of the online engagement group for the Exploratorium. The app's creators -- a mix of scientists and … Read more

Pi Day is on its way and it's time to let that geek flag fly.

If you don't spend a lot of time in the nerd-o-sphere (pun totally intended), you may not realize that March 14 (3/14) is a beloved day to the mathematically aware.

I shouldn't have to tell CNET readers, but pi is a mathematical constant--the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. The actual ratio is fairly close to 22/7--though pi to 12 places is 3.141592653589, not 3.142857142857--and comes in handy for calculating the area of a circle and other activities that even the nerdiest of writers like myself try to avoid on a daily basis.

My colleague Gina Smith, a contributor to CNET sister site TechRepublic, has a little less shame about her love for pi. She posted a long list of her favorite pi facts acquired over the years at aNewDomain (disclosure: I am a contributing editor for that site). Here are a few of my favorites:… Read more

What do you get when you mix a bunch of creative kids with copper wire, glue guns, and dead toy parts? Roller-skating bears and a Two-Hump Wump, to name just a few things.

More than 500 families registered for yesterday's Open Make at San Francisco's hands-on Exploratorium science museum. The event, a collaboration between the Exploratorium, Make magazine, and Pixar Animation Studios, was aimed at giving young makers a forum for learning new skills, collaborating with peers, and showing off their talents.

Open Make will take place once a month through April. Yesterday's theme was toys, with young tinkerers building scribbling machines and kinetic contraptions from wire, perfecting tricky tops, and creating cool-looking art with kaleidoscopes. Click on the gallery below to see the next generation of makers at work. … Read more

At a fund-raiser for The Exploratorium, San Francisco's storied hands-on science museum, lucky guests learn about the chemistry in their cosmos, while consuming one or two.

Does the thought of geometry bring back stressful high-school math memories? Geometry Playground, a new exhibit opening Friday at San Francisco's Exploratorium, could help you rethink your associations with proofs, polygons, and acute angles by moving geometry from the textbook realm to, well, the playground realm.

The exhibit includes a series of experiential displays that let you do things like crawl inside giant 3D spaces; watch yourself in a big curved mirror as you try to play hopscotch; look into a tapered kaleidoscope to see a live video creating a 120-sided shape; and use a flashlight to "draw&… Read more

The Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum in San Francisco, opened its doors after-hours on Wednesday to give people the chance to learn a little more about the beverages they throw back during a night on the town.

The Science of Cocktails event featured bartenders from several drinking establishments in the city by the bay. Attendees were treated to experimental cocktails that take advantage of the chemical and physical characteristics of their ingredients, demonstrations of the physics that make bar tricks work, the debunking of myths about absinthe, and scientific explanations for the dreaded hangover.

Watch this audio slideshow to hear … Read more

Docked off San Francisco's Pier 27 and rocking calmly in the bay, the Okeanos Explorer awaits its return to sea.

The ship--once a U.S. Navy vessel now under control of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)--is in the midst of being outfitted exclusively for deep-ocean exploration and discovery. Its purpose will be to investigate unknown, misunderstood, and other below-the-surface phenomena. It is expected to be fully operational by next summer.

With up to 95 percent of the ocean unexplored, there are vast amounts of research for the ship to pursue. However, the Okeanos Explorer will have … Read more

In the wee hours of August 1, the moon and the sun will pass each other for a breathtaking full solar eclipse, but U.S. residents won't be able to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon because of their location on the planet.

San Francisco's Exploratorium science museum is broadcasting the eclipse to the masses, however, combining science and technology by streaming the eclipse on virtual world Second Life.

In the real world, a team from the Exploratorium science museum will be traveling to the Xinjiang Province in Northwestern China, close to the Mongolian border, to stream a Webcast of the eclipse. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--A man wearing costumes covered head to toe in LEDs. Another man wearing a suit made of bubble wrap. A woman in a skirt made of Snickers wrappers. And a woman in a dress that generates power when she moves.

This was opening night of the 2nd Skin exhibit, a celebration of "imaginative designs in digital and analog clothing," at the Exploratorium here. And if the best and brightest in clothing embedded with technology and pure cacophony weren't on hand tonight, I can't even imagine where else they might be.

I didn't know quite … Read more